Amusing Mathematics Old Schoolhouse November Module

I really enjoyed Amusing Mathmatics. which is pretty amazing since I have never really liked math.

Ok, the truth is I hated math.

I am still not too fond of math but I really enjoy Amusing Mathmatics. My daughter liked it too. In fact, I didn’t get to read through the whole thing at first because I had to stop so she could play with the tangrams.

Amusing Mathmatics. is a great ebook, even for confirmed mathophobes like me. There are activities such as

• tangrams - ancient Chinese puzzles of shapes
• jokes and riddles
• Pattern Blocks
• math puzzles
• sodoku.

Tips are hidden throughout, like an easy way to figure out the answer to 9 x any other number.

I love the copywork for Amusing Mathmatics.! It has rhymes to help remember the difference between coins; the difference in measurement between cups, pints, quarts, and gallons; and other math rhymes.

If you want to add a little fun into your math studies, look no further than Amusing Mathmatics.

whooping cough part 2

*happy dance* Junior's whooping cough test was negative. *happy dance*

I still have things to do for my class so I will update more later.

Homespun Holidays

I just love the smells of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

• The slightly smoky smell in the air outside from people using their fireplaces.
• The spicy scent of apples cooking with cinnamon and nutmeg.
• The toasted vanilla fragrance of cookies baking.

These all make me anticipate the upcoming holidays. The Schoolhouse Store has got an ebook that will help you get that holiday spirit. Homespun Holidays is a wonderful ebook that has so many ideas and recipes for the fall and winter, ideas that come from homeschool moms like you.

With soups to chase away the chill, casseroles to keep you satified, and desserts to make you drool, Homespun Holidays is more than a cookbook. There are also crafts and other activites.

• Play Thanksgiving ABCs, or Going to Mamaw's Bingo
• Make a scarecrow or paint your windows.
• Make a trashbag wreath or a handmade nativity. /li>

What is an e-book?

An e-book is an electronic book that you either download immediately or buy on a computer disk. You can keep it on your computer and read it from there or you can print it and then have it bound. (There are also ways of binding it yourself for very little investment, which I will cover in a later post, I will also discuss different ways of printing to save money.)

Look at Homespun Holidays here before any more time passes. I was absolutely thrilled with my copy.

It's nearly over

Ok, I have been taking this marketing class for almost 4 weeks, and have loved every minute of it. I am so thankful that I was able to take part. From the beginning it seemed to be a God thing that I was able to participate, and when we chose partners.

It has been an intensive class with a fair amount of reading, but it's been amazing. It has gotten my brain thinking about thing I didn't know about.

• I now see what we did wrong at our 4-H fundraiser, a food booth at one of the local town's celebrations. We tried to sell a food plate with a beef sandwhich, bag of chips, drink and cookie for $5, we did sell some but not nearly as many as we were hoping for. We really should have made it the lunch with a free cookie. The word free could have drawn them over. Not to mention we needed to let people know we were there, instead of waiting for them to meander over.
• I have so many ideas. Ideas for my blog template, ideas for posts, ideas for sell sheets . . . .
• I learned my creative bone wasn't broken when I got pregnant, it just hid.

As much as I have learned, I know I still have so much more to learn. I had never heard of a white paper until Wednesday night, but I can see applications for it. I may have even read some before, but didn't know what they were. I am not sure how many other marketing things I have never heard of.

On a personal level, this class has done so much for me. I can't even describe how great it is to be using my brain for something other than grocery list and planning our homeschool week. I do have periodic "projects" like learning html, or learning how to tat, but that's different. If I can't figure them out then no one has to know.

I have made friends, the ladies in the class are all wonderful. I am seeing myself as more creative and smarter than I have in awhile. I just feel that God's hand has been in this whole experience.

What a blessing!

Go Vote!!

Ok, I will be honest. Part of me wants to say go vote only if you are going to vote as I did.

However, I am not going to say who to vote for. I will tell you who not to vote for.

• Don't vote for race
• Don't vote for gender
• Don't vote for "charisma"

Vote for policies, vote for politics, vote your conscience.

And remember -- who ever wins-- God is in control. He is not surprised. He won't be sitting up there in heaven saying "Darn it, I fell asleep and forgot to have _____ win." (Hah, you thought I was going to slip up and tell you who to vote for.)

whooping cough -- again

It's been a very long day today.

Some updates -- when we went to get Junior tested for whooping cough, they told us that they would contact us on friday if Junior had whooping cough. If we didn't hear from them, then he was negative. I assumed that they told the same to the mom of Becca's friend (let's just call her Cindy). So I called Cindy's mom yesterday to verify that she hadn't heard, Cindy was tested monday, so she should have gotten her results thursday, as per the promises of the health department.

Awsome! ! ! We are out of the woods because Cindy's mom hadn't heard from the health department.

Today, Cindy's mom called and, well, Cindy does have whooping cough. The health department hadn't called because they are so busy but the mom went to the health department to double check. They got a little upset and told her she had to leave the building and get Cindy home before she infected more people.

ARGHHHH. So we find this out after taking Junior (who still has a bit of a cough) to Taekwondo and then to a fall festival at one of the local churches. He may not have it but we aren't going to find out for a while because they have so many tests to do (an entire school) and they can only process 17 at a time.

Does Junior have whooping cough? I don't know, I had a cold and he could have caught it from me and that may be the reason for his cough. OTOH, apparently in the beginning whooping cough resembles a cold.

I hope he doesn't have it.

For Women Only -- Go ahead. It's not that bad!

Ok, this post is for women only. Women who are 35 and over. Everyone else can either look at another post or go to someone else's blog.

Are they gone?

Well here goes . . .

We have all seen them.

You know what I am talking about.

The cartoons, the jokes about having someone park the family van on one breast. How a mammogram is absolutly awful, painful. Almost as bad as childbirth.

I had my first mammogram yesterday and it was not that bad. It wasn't fun, wasn't really comfortable but really the worst part was all the paperwork.

I have been more much more uncomfortable with my kids squirming in my lap at times.

There isn't a history of breast cancer in my family, so this was just a routine "baseline." All the same, because of mammograms and monthly self exams, it is now uncommon for breast cancer to lead to death.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and so if it is time to get your mammogram done, go call your doctor. Go have it done. It really isn't that painful.

Whooping Cough

Sunday morning, Junior woke up with a fever, a slight fever but a fever. So we skipped church. Except for the fever, he seemed ok but you never can tell with kids.

Monday early, early in the morning, he woke us up crying. He was crying because he said he was coughing and his throat hurt and he was never ever going to get well and he was going to die.

Did I ever say he is a bit meladramatic?

I finally got him to stop crying because I told him that it would make his throat hurt worse to cry.

Until I mentioned that he had a fever. Then it started again.

Anyway, we have been staying at home mostly because it is cold and he is sick. Well, we found out today that whooping cough is going around and has been documented at one of the local schools.

A school that Daisy has a friend at. A friend that she was glued to at a 4-H food and nutrition workshop where they made food that they ate. A friend that has a cough. A friend that went to the health department and was told to call us.

So we went today to the health department, got Junior tested, and received antibiotics for the whole family.

I am so grateful that we didn't go see my in-laws this weekend. While my mother-in-law is done with her surguries, she still hasn't completly recovered (I posted about it on my other blog here).

So we need to stay home at least until friday and we find out for sure if he has whooping cough or not.

Last week I had wished for a quiet week at home. This isn't quite what I meant.

Marketing Class

This marketing class has been such an amazing blessing for me. I have learned so much not only about marketing, but also about myself. Last week's assignment was something different.

We had to divide up into pairs, something that is always stomach turning (which is why I made the previous post). One of my classmates, Donna, had reached out to me and we became partners.

Working with a partner was a learning experience on its own. So much of being a mom and homeschooler is done solo. Yes, you are teaching your children, but you are the teacher, you come up with the lesson plans, you follow the plans. Sometimes you may work with someone else, like a spouse, but usually one is more "in charge" than the other. In anycase, ususally you know each other somewhat.

This was different. We really didn't know each other at all, and we were equal partners. We had to learn to work together while not being face to face. Our entire "discussion" was email and "windows live messenger."

I have been so amazed at what we have been able to learn from each other. I don't know that I would have learned as much if I hadn't been teamed up with Donna.

One of the big things for me, I learned how to speak up. Donna had an idea for the title and so did I. She mentioned hers first, I had a hard time mentioning mine, (what if she didn't like it, blah, blah, blah). I did mention my idea, we discussed back and forth, we ended up using both in different ways, and the world didn't end.

As a shy person, speaking up is very hard for me. I realized though, if I didn't speak up, it would be her project and she would have to do all the work on it.

The project was to write a short sell and long sell sheet for a product. In our early conversations, we found out that I was eating wheat-free and her family had been eating gluten-free/casein-free (casein is a milk protein, and 3% of people are sensitive to casein. More are sensitive to lactose, but if you had problems with milk at a young age, it's probably casein.)

So we invented a gluten-free/casein-free cookbook that gives recipes, and how to make your own mixes, etc. I would really love to buy this book. It has everything I could possibly want. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist.

The project was alot of fun and I had an excuse to putter with graphics. I also found that brainstorming things that would make me want to buy a cookbook was informative.

What makes you want to buy something?

One Random Thing I am Grateful for about Homeschooling

Ok, this is going to sound silly but I am so glad my children will not have to experience P.E. sports. Its not the athletics I object to, it's the way teams are divided up.

Choosing two captains and letting those two captains take turns picking who is on their team.

Well, someone has to be last.

Guess who that was at my school.

I blame my sister. She got all the athletic ability in the family. I don't care if she was born 7 years after me; she took more than her fair share of athleticism.

Our Other Child

We have two precious children who live with us, Daisy and Junior and every day I thank God for their presence and health.

We also have a little girl, equally precious, whom we haven't met. She lives in the mountains of Bolivia with her many brothers and sisters. Delia is 6 years old. We receive letters from her teachers and her mom because she is just learning her letters. She is able to go to school because she has been sponsored.

We sponsor her through Compassion International. Every night we pray for Delia and her family, this has broadened my childrens view. They know the money we send allows her to eat and go to school.

Please consider sponsoring a child. It is only $32 a month but it changes your sponsored child's life. You can either click here or click on the widget on the right.

Music Mania Module for September

Wow, The Old Schoolhouse September Planner module is wonderful! I love music and the classical composers but my children have looked at music as a chore. Music Mania will help me get them excited about music.

Music Mania has a brief biography of some of the major composers; my children will be able to pick which musician they are interested in studying during music. The information on the orchestra will help them understand how the music is performed, the difference between the 4 types of instruments, and where they are located in the orchestra. I didn’t even know the seating order for an orchestra was standard.

Music Mania has even more! There are links to research more of the top composers, games, word searches, coloring pages, directions for making your own musical instruments. I love the yummy sounding recipes, especially the Inside Out Green Peppers.

If you like your children to do copywork, there are pages of it. Each one is a quote by a composer, with a Fast Facts section which includes a space for their birthday, interesting facts, type of music and major compositions. If you do notebooking or lapbooking, these copybook pages would be an excellent addition to the lapbook

Best of all, Music Mania has stirred up my imagination on what to do for music. I plan on bringing out Benjamin Britten’s Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf so we can listen as we are learning the different parts of the orchestra. Music Mania has helped me think of ways to make music more fun and educational.

Now if I can find something to make math fun . . .